Central University of Punjab, Bathinda

TERM PAPER
SOC.508
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF INTER-CASTE
MARRIAGE: A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY ON THE BASIS
OF THE MARATHI MOVIE – ‘SAIRAT’

SUBMITTED TO:
Tharakan Sreenath
Dr. Sumedha Dutta Chandramohan
Assistant Professor Reg. No.: 19MASOLG05

Department of Sociology Department of Sociology

Central University of Punjab Central University of Punjab

SUBMITTED BY:
Causes and Consequences of Inter-caste marriage: A Sociological Study on
the basis of the Marathi Movie – ‘SAIRAT’

Introduction:
The caste system is deep rooted in Indian Society and it is being sustained and perpetuated mainly by
the caste endogamy which has a strong hold on the mate selection through the institutions of
marriage and family. The marriage system in India is based primarily on the social system and
stratification(Sastri,1918; Rao,1982; Saroja,1999; Netting,2010; Desai and Andrist,2011). Though
India has legalised inter-caste marriage for more than fifty years, new inter-married couples are still
threatened with violence often by their own families and village leaders. When we discuss Indian
marriages with a shade of inter-caste union, it sounds like a taboo to the majority even to this
day(Corwin,1977; Malhotra and Trivedi,1977; Saroja,1999).

Statement of the problem:

The present study aims to study the socio-economic status, problems, causes and consequences,
differences of customs and traditions, discrimination etc of the inter-caste marriage couples. The
present study is conceived under the title – “Causes and Consequences of Inter-caste marriage: A
Sociological Study on the basis of the Marathi movie- ‘Sairat’.”

Caste system has been a rigid part of Indian customs since ages. It is an evil that has made the rules
and regulations of the Hindu tradition biased and unfair. Discrimination based on the caste system
has ruined the society and created differences among the people belonging to different castes.
Marriages in India are essentially endogamus in Nature. Those who dared for inter-caste marriage by
violating the social norms had to face the consequences in terms of violence, social boycott, family
boycott and even death (honour killing)1.

Review of Literature:
G.S.Ghurye in his book ‘Caste and Race in India’, he argues with Sir Herbert Risley that caste is a
product of race that comes to India along with Aryans. Ghurye explains caste in India on the basis of
Six distinctive characteristics:

1
Honour killing is an act of shame caused to the family for which it is otherwise called as shame killing. It is an act of
killing when the person does not accept for arranged marriage, marrying a person disapproved by the family, doing
inter-caste marriage which is against the wish and will of the family.
M.N.Srinivas says the official Hindu ideology of caste is expressed in the scheme of the Varnas into
which all sub-castes are grouped. The term Dominant Caste is used to refer to a caste which ‘wields
economic or political power and occupies a fairly high position in the hierarchy.’ Srinivas defines
Sanskritization as the process by which low hindu caste or tribal or other group, changes its customs,
ritual, ideology and way of life in the direction of a high , and frequently, twice- born caste(Srinivas,
1966).

Louis Dumont in his book ‘Homo-Hierarchicus’ has developed a general theory, an ‘ideal type’ of
the traditional Hindu caste system. According to Louis Dumont, purity and pollution is always the
two extreme categories. The Brahmins being the higher caste and having priestly job are considered
to be pure. The untouchables being at the lower rank and doing the menial jobs are considered to be
impure.

Dr. B.R.Ambedkar’s understanding of caste and caste system underwent certain significant changes
over a period of his writings. He suggested that evil such as Sati, Child marriage and prohibition on
widow remarriage were the outcome of caste. The solution that Ambedkar proposed was the
annihilation of caste. He suggested inter-caste marriage and inter-dining for the purpose although the
latter by itself is too weak to forge any enduring bonds.

Marriott viewed caste through relations of transaction, rather than purity and pollution, which held
together the hierarchy of caste.

A.M. Hocart (1950) had provided a theoretical model of the caste system with the king at the centre.
Hocart’s analysis had accorded primary to the Hindu ritual of sacrifice and had seen caste as a
product of divine kinship where the king as the patron and the chief sacrifice stood at the apex.

Research Questions:
1. Is caste status valued more important than blood relationships?

2. Has inter-caste marriages in India really changed over time?

Methodology:
The present study is mainly based on the secondary data. The data are drawn classified from
different books on Caste, inter-caste marriages, etc and various articles/ journals from jstor. Apart
from this, different edition of daily newspapers such as The Hindu, etc were also used for the
purpose of collection of the information.

Plot:
In the movie Sairat, the director Nagraj Manjule has depicted a typical love of protoganist of the
movie Parshya and Archie. The story begins in Bittergaon, a fictional village of Yavatmal district in
eastern Maharshtra. Archana (Archie) is the daughter of the influential local Maratha politician,
Tattya Saheb Patil. Her father is the sugar cane factory owner and land lord. Prashanth (Parshya) is
from a fisherman family and belongs to Pardhi community. He does well in school and is the captain
of the local cricket team. Parshya perfectly falls in love with Archie. Parshya has two best friends,
Langdya and Salya. The three friends have no religious or caste boundaries.

‘Prince’ is the son of Tattya Saheb and the brother of Archie. He has been depicted as very rude and
arrogant in his behaviour. He slaps his teacher in front of the all students. But his father instead of
punishing him, supports him and stands by side.

The first half of the movie is about the love between Parshya and Archie in the college. It is the
second half of the movie that twists the tale of casteism. At Prince’s birthday celebration, they meet
in the backyard and are discovered by Archi’s family. Her father, Tatya beats Parshya and his
friends. Their love is not socially accepted. The parents of Archie are against their love. So both
Parshya and Archie decide to elope from their village. But they are discovered by the police and are
tken into custody. Tatya forces the police to register a false complaint that Archi was gang-raped by
Parshya and his friends. Archi destroys the complaint, insisting that Parshya and his friends be
released. Soon afterwards, Tatya’s goons beat Parshya and his friends. Archi grabs a pistol from
them, threatening to shoot unless Parshya and his friends are released. She and Parshya jump on a
moving train and escape the confines of their small town.

They reach the city of Hyderabad where their new tale of life begins. They sleep at the railway
station. But one night, several men awaken them and insist that they come to the police station. On
the way, the men beat Parshya and one tries to rape Archi. A woman from nearby slum, Suman Akka
who lives with her sons, intervenes and saves Archi and Parshya from the tragedy.

Akka offers Parshya and Archi a spare shack to live in, and helps Archi find employment in a
bottling factory; Parshya begins working as a cook at Akka’s dosa stall. Archi slowly learns Telugu
with the help of her co-worker Pooja. Archie finds it difficult to adjust in the slum and feels
homesick. They had to struggle a lot for their survival. They began to argue and one day after a
heated argument Archi decides to return home and Parshya almost hangs himself before Archi
changes her mind and returns to him. There they get married at the registrar’s office and have a baby.
Gradually their living conditions becomes better and they start leading a happy life.

But the family members of Archie never forget the humiliation and disrespect of their family in the
village. The father of Archie i.e., Tattya Saheb Patil compels Parshya’s father, mother and sister to
leave the village. His sister does not get married due to out-caste of their family from the village .

Tattya Saheb Patil loses the election in the village. He considers that his defeat in politics is due to
his daughter’s elopement with lower caste boy Parshya. One day, Archie phones her mother and
hands the phone to her young son, Aakash. After the phone call, Prince the brother of Archie with his
relatives visits Archie’s house in Hyderabad with gifts from her mother. They kill both Archie and
Parshya in their house at Hyderabad. Both of them fall in the pool of blood. The ending of their life
is tragic and shocking to all the audience. It creates a pity and fear in the minds of the spectator.
Parshya and Archie becomes the victim of class and caste conflict.

Data Analysis:
The movie ‘Sairat’ depicts a romantic love story that questions the caste and gender-biased social
systems of society. The film creates a discussion around caste violence, particularly in terms of
‘honour killing’. The word ‘Sairat’ itself means ‘Wild’. The director Nagraj Manjule called the title
‘Sairat’ self-explanatory that might imply “freedom of thought, liberation and progressive ideas” for
some and “sheer wildness and reckless” for others.

After watching the movie ‘Sairat’ and collecting data for different sources, it can be observed that
honour based on one’s caste plays important role in Indian societies. In order to maintain this honour,
one is expected to follow certain rules that constitute the code of honour for a specific honour group.
The end of the movie is unexpected, shocking and tragic. The blood brother of Archie along with
other relatives kill both the lovers Archie and Parshya in their house of Hyderabad.

There are also some real-life incidents which shows that caste status is valued more than blood
relationships.

In Ahmednagar of Maharashtra, a newly-wed couple was set on fire following opposition to their
inter-caste marriage. 23 year old Mangesh Ransing and his wife Rukmini (19),were doused in
kerosene and set on fire by three of Rukmini’s relatives, including her father and two uncles(The
Hindu newspaper, May 06,2019).

A man was allegedly murdered by his wife’s father and relatives at Yermarus, Karnataka. According
to police, Anand Sagar(28), who belonged to Uppar community, married Basavarajeshwari,
belonging to the Lingayat community, in November 2014 against the wishes of their parents. The
girl’s father, Virupakshappa Gowda and others attacked him, smashed his head and killed him on the
spot(The Hindu newspaper, May 19,2015).

Kannan(1963) studied 149 inter-caste marriages in the city of Bombay. He found that
inter-caste marriage is steadily increasing only recently and that has assumed a significant
component since 1956. The age of the women at the time of her marriage, the freedom given to her
to choose her partner, the range of female education are some of the important factors for the inter-
caste marriage in Bombay(Kannan, 1963).

Another study on inter-caste marriage(Reddy et.al, 1984) shows that the scheduled caste has
exhibited the highest tendency for inter-caste marriages than the other castes. The urban residence,
education, employment in modern occupation and middle class economic background have tended to
be a set of attributes needed for incidence of inter-caste marriages. He further observes that inter-
caste marriage takes place at fairly advanced age (Reddy et.al, 1984).

Kapadia(1958) in a study of inter-caste marriages in India interviewed 513 university

graduates. He found that 51 percent parents expressed their willingness to cheer children marrying
outside their own caste. Only one-third were against this departure from custom. Post graduate
students were only moderately in favour of inter-caste marriage (Saroja, 1999). Urbanization and
industrialization have certain effect in braking down the barriers of caste (Prasad, 1957; Banerjee
et.al, 1978).

Even though these studies claim that people’s mindset has changed in due course of time towards
inter-caste marriage, still we can find a number of cases related to honour killing or other violations
and discriminations against the inter-caste married couples. So, the question ‘Has inter-caste
marriages in India really changed over time?’ still remains an important study to be studied about.

Nagraj Manjule who is the director of this film prominently highlight the disadvantages of social
stratification and its brutal impact on the Indian societies is skillfully projected in this movie. The
film analyses the cruelties, inhuman treatment, injustices and marginalization of backward classes on
the basis of caste based society is clearly reconstructed through this film. If we takes the present
scenario, the instances of honour killing similar to that is representing in film is happening around all
over the society which is a sign of caution that even though the society civilized to a greater extent
but the thought of caste system never displaced from the minds of people that creates discrimination
in the society. The caste based crimes are getting increased and real spirit of the movie itself
explicitly shows the truth and harsh realities behind the inter-caste marriages and after effects of it
which ultimately end up in so called murder called honour killing which is a conspiracy created by
family members and society put up on the shoulders of those who breaks the vicious circles of cast
system in the society.

The film even creates a spirit of feminism, in which the actress of the movie is picturised as a strong
character who take strong decisions of herself in difficult situations and affirmly have a self entity
and fought with family as well as society to marry a person of her own choice by braking the
traditions and caste system. She freed herself from the boundaries of cast system and domination
which is a positive message to the society to rethink and react at that instant for achieving their rights
rather than surrendering it for others within the four walls of their houses for the sake of others and
in the name of tradition and caste system. So overall the director of this film put a light on the social
reformative ideas and also put thoughts on the mind of younger generations to break the social
stigma and raise their voices against them.

In India, in Hindu Society Pratilom or inter-religious Marriage is not tolerated and in such cases
killing of young aspirant couple or woman by her own family or caste involved, that is a part of
revenge justified in the name on honour killing. Honour killings are not new to the rural India
especially in the regions of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. But then such cases are not just
restricted to the rural areas. They are also heard of in our capital and in the southern states like
Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc. The Aarushi Talwar Case and the killing of Kuldeep and Monica are
speculated to be such killings. In a horrific case of honour killing; a 21-year-old final year student of
Sri Venkateswara, a leading college in Delhi University; south campus, was allegedly murdered by
her family because she had married a boy from another caste and religion.

In cases of ‘honour killings’, it is not just the murder which is a point of serious concern but the very
reasoning behind such acts that raise alarms. According to a survey conducted by ministry of social
justice and innovation nearly 50 per cent of non-scheduled caste respondents in Delhi and 70 per cent
in Uttar Pradesh said that they would oppose a child or close relative marrying a Dalit. There was
even greater opposition to interreligious marriage. They even favour the laws which should stop
marriages between upper and lower caste. This survey also shows that 60 to 75 percent Hindus
opposed marriage with Muslims; a similar fraction of Muslims would oppose a child or relative
marrying a Hindu.

The movie Sairat is a great success in portraying the harsh realities of the society to the audience in a
way that they get entertained by the movie as well as get aware of the social evil practises being
practised in their society. There are many films depicting the social issues but they are either made as
documentary film or in a way that most of the audience do not enjoy watching them and thus those
films fail in conveying their message to a large mass. Sairat is an example to be kept against for all
other shitty films which are released with no specific story and only contain certain entertainment
elements, vulgar comedy, item dances, etc.

Conclusion:
Honour Killing, a barbaric customary practice though initially was not given much importance is
now seen as a serious and heinous crime in India. Women’s choices are oppressed while deciding
about marriage and caste system plays a vital role in deciding a person’s better half . The presence of
honour killing even in 21st century shows how poor India has progressed all these years.

Inter-caste marriages are the only means of completely eradicating the caste barriers in India,
whether urban or rural. In several parts of India, there are hierarchical patterns of castes-within-caste
and people belonging to a sub-caste of any caste do not marry their children to another sub-caste.
Therefore, inter-caste marriages can be visibly seen as forbidden among all castes. The upper castes
in the many parts of India are very possessive about their caste and assume themselves as superior in
the scale of the caste-hierarchy in the region. Hence, they perceive inter-caste pre-marital or marital
relationships of their daughters as a symbol of huge dishonour. This perception results into the
honour based violence but actually the magnitude, extent and dimensions of these causes including
elopements, unaccepted secret marriages and instant disclosure of sexual relationships further
aggravates the problem which results into the murders of the girls, the boys or the couples.

References:
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■ Manish Gupta (May 4, 2013). Caste Ideology and Patriarchy in Rural Maharashtra, Vol. 48:
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■ https://www.thehindu.com>news

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